On display at the FADA gallery for one more day, is one of the most creative award exhibitions held this year. An
exhibition of inventiveness that goes far beyond what one can imagine. At
the centre of it all, is the common bead. But this is no ordinary visual
experience of the round glass, wood, plastic and or seed bead.

Quite the contrary,
what we have here is a diverse range of unique beads and bi-products in
response to an innovative competition brief.

Thuthuka by its
nature and directive to mentors and students alike, expect design concepts and ideas,
skills and fine craftsmanship that challenges the conventions and breaks down
the barriers that exists within our ordinary and basic understanding of
jewellery products.Earrings, Mildah Motshegwa. 2nd year winner, / University of Johannesburg

Winner Innovation award. (Image on the left).

Ballpoint pen drawings, Bead renderings.Mildah Motshegwa.

It’s all about originality.
We like to think out of the jewellery box and we encourage our students to do
the same. Carola Ross, Thuthuka’s founder and Director. Thuthuka catalogue.

Zadie Becker, 2nd year Univ.of Johannesburg.Highly commended for technique across all elements.

Produced by students from
institutions that offer jewellery programmes, including the vocationally based
National Diploma and the Degree Programmes, the apprenticeships and community
based skills development teaching and learning offerings. Works on display are from
Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Durban, Tshwane and further afield.Ceramic slip cast Bud vase, Zadie Becker, 2nd year Univ.of Johannesburg. (Image on the left).

"Each year a theme is set to
guide and inspire the young jewellers and this year, the theme is the African
Bead – transfigured. Students were challenged to take the African bead and
interpret it in a contemporary context. The challenge was to transform a
traditional cultural object into something modern and new – to make the expected
take an unexpected turn. 2013. Thuthuka Overall Winner;Nora Kovats, 4th year student/ Univ. Stellenbosch. Overall winner & Achievement award.

The competition brief required students to go one step
further by taking inspiration from their unique bead design and to translate it
into original rings (1st years), earrings (2nd years) and
neckpieces (3rd years). An extra voluntary task was to transform the
original bead into a miniature bud vase – something to hold a single flower or
leaf". Carola Ross, Thuthuka’s founder and Director. Thuthuka catalogue.

The one-of-a-kind beads were developed as prototypes that inspired a range of connected products, as you
have never seen before. The Thuthuka Jewellery Development Programme and the Thuthuka Jewellery
Awards is sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture of the Republic of
South Africa. This skills development
program and awards exhibition is the brainchild, founder and director of
Thuthuka -Carola Ross.Work submitted by Velobala, Kwazulu Natal.

Beads in all shapes and sizes
are manufactured in a variety of materials, techniques and processes. As each
student had to produce at least two jewellery pieces; their bead and either a
ring, earrings and or neckpiece, as well as the optional budvase, you can just
imagine the scale of this Jewellery exhibition.

Londiwe Dladla, 2nd year Univ.of Johannesburg.Bead and set of earrings.

Although the jewellery products
are small in size, both floors of the FADA gallery are transformed to showcase
the work and to bring credit where its due; each work is displayed with the
names and photographs of the participating students.

Nhlanhla Baloyi. 2nd year Univ.of Johannesburg.Bead and set of earrings.

FADA Gallery, Thuthuka exhibition venue.University of Johannesburg.

A stunning catalogue, one of
the best I have seen this year, contextualises the aims and objectives of
Thuthuka, including the role of the various participating institutions. But
more importantly it showcases the work in beautifully styled photographs with
the images of the students, lecturers and mentors and their workshops. In all my years of teaching at the TWR and now
as the University of Johannesburg, I have never taught such talented, committed and creative students.Bud Vase, First Year,University of Johannesburg (image on the left).

Their commitment and dedication is unrivalled in their contribution to this
awards exhibition. The second year students produced amazing drawings and a
range of products that are masterfully crafted, some taking it to an even
higher level in the production of their ceramic budvases featured here.Budvase, Nhlanhla Baloyi. 2nd year Univ.of Johannesburg (image on the left).

Budvases, as cited in the Thuthuka catalogue, Photographs by Thuthuka official photographer.

This
being only their third product in clay - the creative end results are quite
extraordinary. Congratulations to all the students and especially the prize
winners for an amazing contribution to an extraordinary awards exhibition.

Budvase, Mildah Motshegwa. 2nd year winner, / University of Johannesburg

Wendy Gers, a research
associate at VIAD* (FADA’s Research Centre, University of Johannesburg South Africa) has won the prominent international
competition to be the official curator of the 2014 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale. Seven international jurors selected Gers based on her research
experience and cutting edge project proposal entitled, "Ceramics Now: Art,
Design & Digital Materiality." She was adjudicated the winner after
being shortlisted with eight other prominent curatorial candidates from across
the globe. In the preliminary selection, potential curators were chosen based
on their experience (CV), past curatorial projects, and their contemporary
project proposal for the 2014 International Ceramics Biennale.

The highly esteemed
curatorial role forms part of the 2014 International Ceramics Biennale (Competition)
to be held at the very impressive Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan from May 9
to October 12, 2014. Since 2012, the
museum has been alternating between a work contest and a curatorial exposition
every two years to expand and promote the cultural contribution of the international
ceramics community.

Two renowned South
African Ceramists, whose cutting edge works were included in her curatorial
proposal, were invited to exhibit their work at the prestigious international ceramics
event next year. Eugene Hon a senior lecturer at FADA (the blogger) will showcase his latest
work, a ceramic installation with projected animation titled, and the ship sails on (image above).

Masquerade, Press moulded maskby Clementina van der Walt.

Clementina van
der Walt, a lecturer at the Ceramics Department in the eighties, now based in
Cape Town, will exhibit one of her
renowned wall panels of press moulded masks titled, Masquerade, that alludes to the
ongoing tensions associated with forging a new national identity for the so
called 'Rainbow Nation' in post-Apartheid times. See image above- follow the link provided for a review by Wilma Cruise of the exhibition titled, Masquerade, held at the Irma Stern Museum December 2004-5.

In her winning
proposal of her choice of ceramists, she states, ‘I endeavored to include a
significant proportion of artists and designers attached to universities,
academic research laboratories and reputed international organizations such as
the International Academy of Ceramics (lAC). This ensures that most of the ceramists
are leaders and pioneers in their respective fields. For me, this is essential
in order to ensure that Ceramics NOW: art, design & digital materialities
sets a benchmark. The artists included are all engaged in an elevated level of
critical discourse and designers at the a-front of the digital revolution.’

Wendy Gers the Franco-South
African Art Historian and Curator currently
lectures at l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design du Valenciennes, France. She
formerly worked as Curator at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port
Elizabeth. Research interests include twentieth century Southern African
performing arts (especially dance and performance); craft and design (ceramics
is her primary area of expertise) as well as museology and curatorial
practices. She is also a researcher, arts writer and curator linked to VIAD.

*VIAD – The Research Centre (RC), Visual
Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) is an integral part of the Faculty
of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) South Africa,
spanning across all of its eight departments. The RC’sconceptual underpinnings are based
upon the thematics of visually embodying identity in art and design practices.​​

BA Art History and Classical Civilisation,
University of KwaZulu-Natal; AUDIS Advanced University Diploma in Information
Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal; MA History of Art University of
KwaZulu-Natal (cum laude); currently pursuing
doctoral studies, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University
of the Arts, London

Gers has authored various museum catalogues,
catalogue articles, and published in various journals including Art South Africa, Ceramic Review, and Image & Text. In 2011 and 2012 Gers published
articles on Robyn Orlyn and Steven Cohen (Art South Africa 2012.
10(3):48-51); contemporary South African Ceramics (Art South Africa
2012. 10(4):54-59) and on Re-Presentations of Southern San Parietal Art on
Drostdy Ware Pottery from the 1950s (Image &
Text 2011. 18:).

Fluent in English, French and Spanish, Gers
regularly participates in various academic conferences and forums in Europe and
South Africa. In July 2012 she participated in the World Economic History
Congress, University of Stellenbosch and the South African Visual Arts
Historians National Conference at UNISA, Pretoria. She gives public lectures in
South Africa and France. Gers is currently finalising a large monograph on
Southern African Potteries: 1880-1980, and recently collaborated with Iziko SA
Cultural History Museum on the exhibition Fired, which
displays works from their ceramic collections, and will show for three years at
the Cape Town Castle. Awards and Grants include a 2010 Research Grant Award
from Central Saint Martin’s College, University of the Arts.

Title image: Ceramic installation with projected animation titled, and the ship sails on. In celebration of the Chinese year of the dragon. Follow link to view video on You Tube.EUGENE HŐN : CERAMIC ARTISTThe purpose of this blog is to inform you of the creative thinking behind my ceramic statements.I will therefore provide reference material to facilitate greater interaction with you in the development of ceramic concepts. The expressed views and posted comments are intended to illustrate how the ceramic statements act as a vehicle for an expanding discourseon relevant art, design and craft issues.

About Me

I am a ceramic artist with a passion for drawing. My ceramic statements are a creative response to the literary sources I choose to read. I am also an academic, recently appointed Director of the FADA Gallery at the University of Johannesburg. I am an artist that celebrates the handmade, with strong concepts and meaning that straddles the disciplines of ceramics, sculpture, drawing, artist’s books, digital printing, animation, video or digital projection Installation and ultimately design.